2nd lawsuit targets Gregoire's budget

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, December 29, 2008

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire's no-new-taxes budget has drawn the second lawsuit in two weeks from another of her big re-election backers.

On Monday, a health care division of the Service Employees International Union filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court, charging that Gregoire violated state law by failing to include funding for the home-care worker union contract in her proposed 2009-11 budget.

"This is a clear violation of a law that -- ironically -- was signed by the governor just 18 months ago," said David Rolf, SEIU Healthcare 775NW president. "In our system of checks and balances, when an elected official violates the law, it's the job of the independent judiciary to hold them accountable. We understand the difficult budget situation facing the state and want to work with legislators and the governor to find creative ways to reduce costs and close the budget gap without harming essential services, but breaking the law and undermining the collective bargaining statute isn't the way to get there."

Gregoire's lead budget writer said the magnitude of the budget shortfall -- now nearly $6 billion -- made honoring the contracts infeasible.

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The contract provides raises -- 25 cents an hour in 2009 and 22 cents an hour in 2010 -- to 23,000 low-wage workers who earn less than $11 an hour to care for seniors and people with disabilities.

Gregoire's budget infuriated many of her strongest supporters because of the deep cuts, wage freezes and reduced reimbursement rates required to balance the ledgers without tax increases.

The lawsuit asks the Supreme Court to exercise its authority to order Gregoire to withdraw the budget proposal she submitted to the Legislature on Dec. 18, and to instead submit a budget proposal that includes funding for the contract.

Last week, the state employees union filed a similar suit based on what they called bad faith negotiations in contracts. Gregoire did not included money for the salary increases she negotiated through collective bargaining with the unions.

Glenn Kuper, a spokesman for Gregoire's Office of Financial Management, said the economic downturn and predicted loss of state revenue that followed the contract negotiations made fulfilling them impossible.

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SEIU maintains that the Office of Financial Management does not have the legal authority to overlook the terms of the collective bargaining negotiations and that the governor is legally required to include any contract settled by an arbitrator in her proposed budget.

Kuper said his office disagrees, but that the state attorney general would handle the details of legal arguments for Gregoire's budget office.